Wetlands – land consisting of swamps or marshes – have, during the centuries, been demonised as places of pestilence, drained for agriculture or urban development, and polluted or paved over.

But today, they are emerging as crucial ecosystems in the fight against climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate, has warned of the need to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.

February 2, 2022 (GLOBAL) — Six years into the establishment of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Land Portal is re-examining progress made on land-related SDG indicators. More than a dozen land-related indicators are housed over five SDG goals. The newly updated SDG Land Tracker features completely revised and updated narratives for 13 land-related indicators describing why the indicator is important and how the indicators are measured and monitored.

As Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique mop up after Cyclone Ana, scientists caution that South Africa’s east coast could be hit by intense tropical cyclones.

Over the past week, the first seasonal cyclone in the Southwest Indian Ocean killed at least 34 people in Madagascar and two in Mozambique, and left large swathes of Malawi without power. 

Nitidae, l’Observatoire National du Foncier Burkina Faso (ONF-BF), Oxfam Burkina Faso and the Netherlands Enterprise & Development Agency (RVO) are excited to announce their partnership for a LAND-at-scale project in Burkina Faso. Starting this year, the project will run for three years focusing on strengthening land governance for women and youth for increased food security, focusing on the Liptako Gourma region.

Burkina Faso’s land challenges

The recovery of mangrove forests is key to climate change adaptation and to mitigating the effects of cyclones and floods, according to Maria Salazar of the Spanish International Cooperation and Development Agency (AECID).

According to a press release from AECID, a project repopulating and conserving the mangroves in Mozambique’s capital city, Maputo, is in its pilot phase under a programme run by the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA). The project is being co-financed by the European Union and AECID.

Life-threatening floods from bursting glacial lakes are just one of the many impacts of climate change that are leaving the people of Nepal unable to cope. Guest blogger Shreya K.C. calls on world leaders to replace fake handshakes with concrete action.

Environment department lays charges against state diamond miner over use of “coffer dams”

Alexkor in Port Nolloth is facing criminal charges for buiding coffer dams to hold back the ocean. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

The world’s first famine caused by climate change rather than conflict continues amid insufficient domestic and global attention.

KNP in perspective (Part One)

The Kruger National Park and its complex history of conservation and dispossession

 By the 1950s, Kruger Park had become a global ‘must-see’ destination for tourists. Photo: SANParks Archives

A landmark new resource guide and toolkit from the World Bank and the Global Wildlife Program (funded by The Global Environment Facility) features Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park as a successful case study and model of a “Collaborative Management Partnership” – a public-private agreement set up to manage conservation areas and support sustainable, inclusive development.

Global Canopy (GC) is a data-driven not for profit that targets the market forces destroying nature. We do this by improving transparency and accountability. We provide innovative open-access data, clear metrics, and actionable insights to leading companies, financial institutions, governments and campaigning organisations worldwide. Global Canopy is moving through a period of organisational growth and development and has identified a need to focus greater attention on the human rights aspects of our work.

An anthracite mine in rural KwaZulu-Natal which has operated for more than 30 years and has reportedly been involved in several controversies during this time involving water pollution, illegal mine expansion and water shortages in neighbouring rural communities, experienced a slurry dam collapse on 24 December 2021. Large volumes of potentially toxic and acidic coal-mine effluent have spilled into rivers flowing through rural communities and the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi and iSimangaliso wildlife reserves.